” If you take the creation of music and the creation of your own life values as your overall goal, then living becomes a musical process. “
” You must surrender whatever preconceptions you have about music if you’re really interested in it. “
” One of the things Mother said to me, ‘You want this, you’re going to practice.’ And I know how to practice. “
” When you play, when you perform, it might be for the last time, so you got to do it. “
” They say, ‘We will give you money, but we want you to play this or that.’ And I always thought, ‘If I’m going to do that, I might as well go back and be a dishwasher. “
” You know what the material is so that you never play it the same way twice. “
” Find one note on the instrument that pleases you, and then find another note that also pleases you. “
” Before he fought Billy Conn, Joe Louis said, ‘He can run, but he can’t hide.’ That’s how I feel about New York: You can run from it, but you can’t hide. “
” Someone once asked me if I was gay. I said, ‘Do you think a three-letter word defines the complexity of my humanity?’ I avoid the trap of easy definition. “
” When you think about musicians who are reading music, my contention has always been the energy that you’re using deciphering what the symbol is is taking away from the maximum creative energy that you might have had if you understood that it’s but a symbol. “
All 10 Cecil Taylor Quotes about You in picture
Topics: You quotes